Reports: Groton Sub Base Issues Furlough Notices for July 8-Sept. 30

May 29, 2013

The New London Day reported that more than 600 technicians who work at the submarine base in Groton were set to receive furlough notices requiring them to take one day off each week for 11 weeks starting July 8, through the end of the fiscal year.

The cuts are forced by sequestration, the mandatory, across-the-board spending cutbacks in federal spending. Capt. Marc Denno, commanding officer of the base, told The Day and said on WNPR's Where We Live radio program Wednesday that safety and services such as child care would not be compromised.

"I don't think there's anything that won't get done but it will get done at a slower pace," Denno said on WNPR. He added that improvements to the base, including barracks and other facilities for submariners, are moving ahead.

The base, home to 15 nuclear subs, has an estimated economic value to the state of $4.5 billion, including all direct spending, indirect spending and spillover effects as the money courses through the state's economy. That figure might be a bit of an exaggeration and it might be on target, but either way, it's far more valuable to the economy than, say, retail spending because virtually all of the money is coming from out of the state.

"When you have this big segment of employees in Southeast Connecticut taking a 20 percent pay cut, you can expect that there will be an economic impact," said Bob Ross, director of the state's Office of Military Affairs.

Ross and others are also girding for a longer-term fight, the possibility of a Base Realignment and Closure Commission, or BRAC. The Groton base was on an initial list of targeted bases in 1993 and again in 2005, but was saved both times. Ross says this time will be different, as the Pentagon has spent $150 million upgrading Groton and the state has spent another $11 million.

And elected officials, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, say they're confident there won't be a BRAC next year despite a request by the Obama administration.

To support the cause in the event of a BRAC, backers of the base are using the submarine history of Southeastern Connecticut and Rhode Island, with Electric Boat and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, R.I., as an argument in addition to economics and, of course, strategic need.

"This is where submarines were born, this is where they come back to," Denno said on WNPR.